Wednesday morning I made it out to the bus stop by 8. I had a quick breakfast at the hostel and was ready to go. I met a few other people at the bus stop, all of whom were heading to Bako as well. I was the only one of the group who was planning to stay the night. We got on the bus, which was full of other people heading to the same place, Bako National Park. Everyone was foreign. Apparently, there are over twice as many foreign visitors to the park than there are Malaysian.
The bus ride was about an hour long, then we were dropped off at a boat dock. We then had to register and pay our entry fee before taking about a 20 minute boat ride to the actual park itself. The boat ride was a fun experience itself, we passed by several waterfront villages, and several local fishing boats gathering their nets. When we came out to the mouth of the river and entered the South China sea, we could see several islands all around us, all covered in thick greenery. Things just seemed to have a really wild vibe from then on. I couldn’t fight the huge grin on my face. This is what I wanted. This was the reason I came to Malaysia.
We ended up pulling up and anchoring a few yards off shore, we had to take off our shoes and wade the rest of the way to shore. We walked up the beach, then to the park headquarters, where we had to sign in again.
After that, I grabbed a map and just took off down a trail. I was too excited to even think about stashing my monstrous backpack. I later came to realize that I was the only one on the trail with a big pack. I thought it was because I would be the only one camping, but it also turns out there was a room for hikers to leave their packs in while they went out to the trails. I really didn’t mind it though, I was sweating pretty bad, but it was nice exercise. I was tired when I made it back to the HQ but I don’t regret my decision/absentmindedness at all. I did leave my pack when I went back out later in the afternoon though.
The first trail I went on went out to a beach. It was much more vertical than I had expected, so I had to take it pretty slow, especially since I was alone. I could hear all kinds of animal noises, bird songs, and crashing through the trees my whole walk to the beach, but I didn’t actually see anything until I made it to the beach and was on my way back. There were a bunch of other hikers stopped on the trail, watching a troop of Proboscis monkeys climbing in a tree. I hung out for a little while, trying to get a better view of the monkeys and snap a few pics, but my iPhone camera just didn’t cut it for the longer range shots. I ended up resuming my journey back down the trail, weaving around some other people stopped on the trail taking pictures of the monkeys with much more formidable equipment.
I have always thought it would be nice to have a nice camera that was more able to take really nice photos. Sometimes I really have trouble getting a good shot with my phone’s camera. I have been tempted several times to pay an arm and a leg for a nice camera and lens set up. I think it would be cool to have a nice camera sometimes, but then I see these people lugging theirs around and I lose any feelings of jealousy. There is no way I would ever be happy carrying around something like that. First off, I don’t trust myself to be careful enough not to break it. Secondly, I love having my little phone camera in my pocket at all times. Always on hand to snap a quick pic. I have been mostly satisfied with my photos thus far, so no need for a big expensive camera yet.
So after fighting a silent fit of camera jealousy, I made it back to the start of the trail. I met some other hikers where the trails split off and they ended up coming the same way as I did so we chatted for a little bit. They were Spanish, so I tried to practice speaking with them for a little. I was able to say everything I wanted, but their English was way better than my Spanish so I ended up feeling a bit embarrassed when I misspoke and I quit Spanish for the rest of our time together. We also met up with a few other groups along the way. Everyone was with someone else. I only saw one other person walking alone my whole time in the park. Most of the groups I walked along with were from Europe. Most were from France, Germany, or Holland, but there were a few other random countries mixed in as well. I said “Hello” to a couple as I passed them, their accent sounded American. If they were, then they were the only Americans I saw all day.
My International crew and I ended up getting separated along the way though. They were all groups and they all had at least one person who was a good deal older so they had to go a little slower, and they kept having to wait. I just kept trucking though. I made it to our destination in good time tool. I ended up reaching the beach about 15 minutes before any of the others in the group. There were already a load of other people hanging out on the beach and swimming in the water though. I was very happy to have made it to the water. I didn’t wait long at all to jump in the water. It was warm, almost hot in the shallow areas, but it was really refreshing after the long hike.
I hung out for about an hour, then decided I would catch a boat ride back to the other side of the park, drop off my big back pack and hit up some other trails.
The boat ride was really nice. It was just me and the driver. He drove me around some rock formations jutting up out of the sea and told me some things about the parks geology. Apparently these “sea stacks” were the main symbol of Bako National Park. The entire park, and much of the island of Borneo is composed of sandstone. These sea stacks were some pieces of a cliff that were left standing after the waves had cut much of the rest of the rock away. It was really interesting to hear about it. The driver sounded very proud to tell me about it.
After my little boat tour around the park, we arrived back at the park HQ. I dropped off my pack and talked with some of the park workers. They recommended that I take the “night tour” if I was going to stay the night. I was very excited to hear there was a night tour, and it was only 10 RM or 3.50 USD. I loved how cheap everything was in Malaysia. Most of my meals cost me less than 3 USD and I was almost always over filled.
I went hiking up a few more trails, but didn’t go too hard. I was getting tired, and I didn’t want to be so exhausted that I wouldn’t be able to go on the night tour. I planned to do a little more than I ended up hiking, but the two trails I too first were almost straight vertical. I was using my hands to climb up some roots and rocks. I was so tired when I got to the viewpoints. I just sat on the benches admiring the views and the peace and quiet until another group came along. I got some pictures of the views, but they don’t really do it justice.
After making it down these paths, I headed back to the HQ to chill out for a little while on the beach. By then it was about 5pm, and the last boat for the night had just left so the park was much more quiet. Only those who were staying the night were left, and it seemed like many of them were in their cabins, or eating in the cafeteria. I headed to the beach to chill out and read for a little bit. I found a really nice spot, the view kept distracting me from my book.
So I read for a little bit and walked around on the beach for a while as the sun was setting across the water. Everything I read online about the park suggested that I stay the night there, because all the animals became much more active as soon as the sun started to get lower and the weather cooled off. That was definitely the case. I just wandered all around the beach and cabin areas, trying to take it all in. I got some cool pics of some Monkeys coming through the camps, wild boar on the beach, and some cool hermit crabs. It was amazing. The sunset was perfect, and all the animals were running around and everything. It was exactly what I had hoped to experience. I was so happy. I ended up sitting down on the beach to watch the last bit of sunset, and just smiling to myself. This jungle adventure was perfect, and I still had more to do.
The night tour started at 8. I was pretty beat by then, but I was pretty excited to go walk around the jungle at night. Apparently everyone else who was staying the night came out too. There were about 35 people in total. We all split up into two groups. Each group had two guides. Again, I was the only person there who was alone. We all walked along the path in a kind of single file line. I made sure I stayed in the very back, with the rear guide. There were a few times we stopped to look at something we saw while the rest of the group kept going. At one point we stopped to look at some nocturnal catfish in this massive puddle. We made a few splashes so they would come out of their hiding spots and watched them swim around for a minute or two. When we looked up we had completely lost the rest of the group. We couldn’t even see their flashlights. It was like I had my own personal tour guide for a little bit.
The tour lasted for about 2 hours, we saw some sleeping monkeys, fireflies, all kinds of spiders, luminous mushrooms, tree frogs, and some monster fire ants. It was just another awesome experience that made me glad I came there.
After the night tour, I was dead tired, so I went to the camping area to set up my tent and go to bed. I was the only person in the campsite. Everyone else must have opted for the cabin option. There were many warnings, both online and on signs around the campsites, saying not to set up your tent until you were going to get in it. The monkeys around the camp were known to go into tents, steal things and make a mess, sometimes even spending the night. I made sure not to risk it. I set up my tent as fast as I could and I went right to sleep.
In the morning I was woken up by the sounds of crashing branches and leaves in the trees above my tent. I immediately imagined the monkeys outside of my tent sneaking in about to open my tent and come say hello. I quickly popped my head out of the tent and made my presence known. They were pretty close when I looked out, but by the time I cleaned up my stuff and went out to start taking down the tent they were no longer paying me any mind. I watched them for a little while, running around and climbing the trees. I decided to have a bite to eat as I watched so I went into my pack to get a granola bar. As soon as I opened it, there were about 10 monkeys all around me, staring up at me wanting a bite. I quickly threw the food back in my back pack and tried to shoo them away. They left me alone after that… for the most part.
I sat back down and watched as a troop of Proboscis monkeys came swinging through the trees behind me. I was taking a video of them swinging along when I turned around and saw a little Macaque monkey with his eyes on my pack. I quickly went over to shoo him away. I chased hi off a bit, but soon after, I was swarmed by about 15 other monkeys. They all came over and one was screeching at me loudly. I decided that what I had just done must have been a no-no in the monkey community. I saw more of the little bastards approaching behind the originals and quickly decided to get the hell out of there. I grabbed my pack and started to walk away quickly, and they all followed and screeched again. I started to run a little and they ran after. Finally, I decided to turn off the camera and really run. I got most of the confrontation on video. As soon as I really started to book it they stopped chasing me.
I guess I screamed or something because when I looked up, there was a guide standing there with a slingshot. He held up the slingshot with a smirk and asked me “which one was it?” I said it was all of them. They just ganged up on me. He laughed and told me how much of a problem the Macaques are around the camps. He said they even sneak in the kitchens some times and steal food from the cooks in the mornings. I even saw one climb up over the cafeteria and come down on the other side to snatch a banana and a sandwich right out of a ladies hand. It seemed like the story of my near death experience had made it around to a few other people. I was sitting on a bench by the HQ building when some people came up and asked me if I was the guy that was camping. They asked me about the monkeys. I told them the story and they laughed. I was a bit frightened when the monkeys were coming after me, but now I am really happy it happened. It was definitely something I will remember for a long time.
The rest of the morning I took it easy. I was really tired from the short nights sleep in a hot and humid tent. I hiked two more trails in the morning and decided to take the early boat home. I watched the clouds moving in on the park as I was riding on the boat. I was very happy with my decision to leave early and avoid the rains.
The whole bus ride home it was pouring down rain outside.
When I got back to the hostel I took a shower, did some laundry and chilled out until the rain stopped.
I spent the rest of the day walking around Kuching. I visited some of the places I had ben to already, as well as some new places, then watched the sunset and saw a bunch of vendors setting up their shops for the night market.
I went to the food festival for dinner, and gorged myself on a bunch of different things. I don’t even remember half of what I ate.
I went back to the hostel after dinner and ended up having another long talk with Sam, the owner, before going to bed.
The next day I woke up and was trying to figure out my plans for the day. I had met some other people staying at the hostel earlier in the week, and they told me they were headed to some caves about an hour away. I was supposed to fly back to KL that afternoon, but I decided to change my flight to the next day. I really didn’t enjoy KL half as much as I had enjoyed Kuching, so it didn’t take much convincing.
My hostel friends were from the UK, Luke and Frea (sp?). They had been traveling around Borneo for about a month and were about to head to the Malaysian peninsula for a few days before going to Australia and start their new jobs. This was their last day in Kuching as well so they wanted to do something fun.
We caught a taxi to the first cave “Wind Caves”. It was about an hour ride. The cave was pitch dark so we had to bring flash lights. There were millions of bats inside. As soon as we stepped in we could here them all erupt with their little bat squeaks. It was a little bit weird. It was really damp and smelled pretty bad. I felt the need for a shower. We walked around for about an hour in these caves. It was too dark to get any good pictures of the bats, but it was insane how many of them their were. They looked like swarms of ants all over the cave walls. I wish I could have gotten better pictures to show just how many bats were in there. It was kind of disgusting.
After journeying through the Bat Paradise, we went back out to our taxi and he took us to the next cave, “Fairy Cave”. The first cave was pretty cool, but this one was wayyyyyyy cooler. We were dropped off at the bottom of this massive set of winding stairs.
We climbed the stairs, then had to squeeze through a narrow little passageway up into the main cave. It opened up into one of the coolest places I have ever been in my whole life. It was a massive cave. I am sure the ceiling was at least 200ft high. It felt like it was almost the size of the Verizon Center in DC. There was a massive opening on the one end of the cave. Big enough to fit a few houses in. The light that came through that hole was enough to allow a bunch of little plants to cover the cave floor. It was like Fern Gulley. Again, I cant really explain how it was, but at least I could get a pick of this one.
We wandered around the cave for a bit and then went up towards the big opening, where there was a big observation deck. We then realized it was pouring down rain outside. It was kind of cool being in the shelter of the cave watching the rain dump outside. We sat on the observation deck for a while, enjoying the views and eating some mango I had bought at one of the street vendors in town.
When we finally headed back down to the cab, it was still dumping rain. We had to sprint to the cab, but still ended up getting completely soaked. Even with an umbrella. We all ended up falling asleep for at least a few minutes in the cab on the way home, the rain put us right to sleep.
When we got back we changed into dry clothes then headed out to the food festival as a team. Again, we all ate a massive amount of many different foods. I really am happy to be back to Japanese food, but I really miss this food festival. They had so many things to eat!
After our post spelunking feast, we went back to the hostel for some R&R. Luke and I made a plan to reconvene later on and head out to a local bar to meet one of the hostel employees and celebrate our last night in Kuching.
We finally mustered up the energy to head out around 1030. The bar we went to was called “Monkey Bar” a lot of the profit from the bar is supposed to be donated to the local Orangutan rehabilitation center. It was a Friday night so there were a lot of people there, we had trouble finding a place to hang out without getting bumped into. Eventually we found a little table upstairs. When I went back to get a second round, I ran into this girl at the bar who was getting a drink next to me. I remembered seeing her at the coffee shop earlier in the week and thinking she was cute. I wasn’t going to approach her since it was my last night, but she came up to me right away and started talking to me asking if she had seen me before. We ended up joining her party of friends and hanging out for the night. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the locals.
Luke ended up heading back to go to bed around 1230 or 1, but I decided to stay and hang out with Anastasia and my new Malay friends. We headed to another club later, and met with another group. The second place seemed much more local. I think I was probably the only white guy in there. It was cool though everyone was really nice in Kuching. I really felt welcome everywhere I went.
I finally got a ride home at around 330 and went straight to bed. I had a flight the next evening at 710, but I had planned to meet up with Anastasia and check out some other places around town before my flight.
I went to a textile museum in the morning, and bought some more fabric for my mom. Then I went to Starbucks to grab a cup of coffee and wait for Anastasia. As I sat outside I watched a bunch of photographers having a meeting. The next day was supposed to be the annual Kuching Marathon and all the photographers had to have a briefing beforehand I guess. After their meeting some of them came up and sat with me as I waited. They explained to me that they were having a best photo contest that day and that some of them had been taking pictures of me for the contest. I laughed and apologized if I had broken their camera… They didn’t seem to get the joke… The pictures were cool I guess. Just me sipping coffee and playing on my phone. I ended up talking with them for a while and I gave one guy my email and told him to let me know if I won him the contest. I still haven’t received any email though…
Anastasia showed up just as they were all posing for a picture with me. It was kind of funny. I felt like a little celebrity. She joked with me about how I was becoming so famous.
Her and I walked around some shops and got some food. We hung out for a few hours, then she offered to take me to the airport when the time came around. It was really cool. I feel like I made a really good friend. I felt bad that I had to leave, but she was really sweet to take me to the airport. I really enjoyed my whole trip, I see a lot more when I am traveling alone and I am usually a bit less stressed since I can do whatever I want, but it was nice to have a friend to hang out with after travelling alone all week even if it was just for a bit.
So I stopped at the hostel to grab my bag and say my goodbyes on my way to the airport. They already had a cab waiting for me when I showed up. These people were awesome!
I made it to the airport and got on my plane, and said good bye to Anastasia. Hopefully we will see each other again somewhere down the road. I didn’t have much waiting time at all though. I boarded the plane as soon as I got to the gate and we were off.
I landed in KL and hopped in a taxi and he took me to my hotel for the night. This taxi driver was a much better driver, but he didn’t talk… at all… it was kind of weird. He couldn’t find my hotel either so we rode around for an extra 30 minutes asking different people for directions. Luckily it was a pre-paid cab so I didn’t get screwed. The hotel I stayed in was pretty basic, but close to the airport. I got some food and then went to sleep. My flight back to Japan was at 8am the next morning.
So I woke up early, after a few hours of sleep and got back in a cab to the airport. The flight home was much smoother than the one on the way there. I landed around 4pm. I hit up my buddy Koichi to see what he was doing. I didn’t feel like going home and doing nothing so I went over to chill with him and some other friends at their apartment in Osaka. They made a huge dinner and we watched some movies. I ended up passing out there then heading home in the morning. I am still not all the way back in work mode, but I am getting there. This week will be a bit of a struggle to readjust.
My trip was amazing though. I know this post was very long, I hope you liked reading it. I had an absolute blast all week. It was great to meet all the great people I met, and to finally camp out in a tropical rainforest, which has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. So yea. Malaysia was great. I am happy. Now back to work. Mom and Aunt Sandy will be here to visit in a few weeks, then I get to adventure with them. I am very excited for that.
As always, thanks for reading. Have a great week.
Sorry, most of the pics are not loading. I may have to separate this into two posts….